Today representatives of LAN participated in the launch of the Reforestamos Patagonia (Reforest Patagonia) campaign, a public-private effort, non-profit organization, whose goal is to organize citizens to contribute to plant native trees in four national parks and reserves of the Chilean Patagonia in 2012. LAN joins the initiative as one of the founding companies with an initial contribution of 10,000 native trees.

"As part of our Social Responsibility Program “Cuido Mi Destino”, we wanted to join this tremendous project to get rid of some of the damage caused by the fire that occurred late last year near Torres del Paine. This initiative is part of the work that we will do this year in the 12th Region of Chile through our CSR program that we will implement in October of this year, "said Bruno Ardito, Director of Institutional Relations, LAN Airlines.

The executive also issued an invitation to passengers on LAN and businesses in Chile to cooperate with this important initiative by donating trees to the speedy recovery of the flora of Torres del Paine National Park.

About the CampaignThe organization behind the campaign is the Image Foundation of Chile (Fich), whose primary mission is to market Chile abroad, the Under Secretary of Tourism, responsible for promoting and developing domestic tourism, Conaf, which manages Chile's forest policy and ensures the protection and conservation of forests and national parks, and Patagonia Sur, which is responsible for logistics and coordination of crews responsible for reforestation.

"In the past 100 years, more than 3 million hectares (approximately 7,400,000 acres) of native forest have been destroyed by fire or man made causes in this area. The last episode occurred in December 2011,when there was a fire that burned 17,000 hectares of the Torres del Paine National Park, images that deeply struck citizens and motivated this native reforestation campaign”, said Matias Rivera, Executive Director, Reforestamos Patagonia.

Each tree costs $ 2,000 CLP (approximately $4 USD), and can be purchased at www.reforestemospatagonia.com through web pay (in Chile) or PayPal (overseas). When you finish the checkout process, you will receive an e-mail with a reforestation certificate and a geo-referenced link to Google Maps with the exact location of where your tree will be planted.